Brothers in Brewing: The Edward Ryerson IPA Collaboration Story

One of the exciting things about being a brewer is being able to occasionally brew with your friends from other breweries. Chris German and I go way back to the early 2000s when he was doing radio sales and I was getting my start in the Duluth brewing scene. He used to buy malt and hops from us after the local home-brew supply store went out of business. Then he got his big break and took a sales job with Brewers Supply Group, then a fledgling company that has since blown up.

Chris and I were discussing what we wanted to brew and he mentioned he had access to some Moutere hops from New Zealand that might be fun to play with. They are a new variety with a very limited supply. When we rubbed the hops to assess their aromatics, we got a lot of stone fruit, cherry in particular. Chris really wanted to throw some rye into the mix, to see how the spiciness of the rye would play against that cherry hop background. Hence the idea of a rye IPA with a fun New Zealand hop was born.

Chris came up on a snowy early March day to help brew the beer. We had decided to name the beer after the Edward Ryerson, an ore ship that has been moored behind the Cedar Lounge for quite some time. the Ryerson has been described as one of the most beautiful ore carriers on the Great Lakes. The brew day went smoothly and we eagerly awaited to see what the results of fermentation would produce in this beer.

Edward Ryerson IPA is golden in color with a bready malt character made spicy by the use of rye malt. Even though we only used one hop variety, there is a lot of hop complexity in this beer. The prominent hop flavors include cherry, pineapple and pine or resin. Edward Ryerson IPA is now pouring at the Cedar Lounge and at select Twin Ports retail locations. Get a taste of this complex IPA while you can.